Europe
Russia
Inside Russia's human rights abuses. "The Russian government led by Vladimir Putin systematically suppressed dissent, persecuted LGBT citizens, ignored the rule of law, allowed killing and torture by police, and committed a long list of other human rights abuses last year, according to new State Department report." Josh Rogin at the Daily Beast.
Guess who showed up? "Ousted President Viktor Yanukovich surfaced in Russia after a week on the run. Yanukovich said Russia should use all means at its disposal to stop the chaos in Ukraine as tension rose on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the only region with an ethnic Russian majority and the last major bastion of resistance to the overthrow of the Moscow-backed leader." Alissa de Carbonnel and Alessandra Prentice at Reuters.
Switzerland
Switzerland, I don't even know where to start. "A slight majority (50.3 percent) of the voters endorsed a proposal put forward by the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to introduce a ceiling on immigration … The result of the February 9 referendum puts Switzerland at odds with the EU by undermining its four sacrosanct freedoms: free movement of people, goods, services and capital. Hence, it is not surprising that threats to freeze ongoing negotiations that aim to further deepen relations between the two sides were quick to come from the European Commission, the executive body of the EU based in Brussels, and several European member states." Kemal Kirisci and Yves Genier at Brookings.
Ukraine
Russian troops invade Crimea region of Ukraine. "Russian troops took over Crimea as the parliament in Moscow gave President Vladimir Putin a green light Saturday to use the military to protect Russian interests in Ukraine. The newly installed government in Kiev was powerless to react to the action by Russian troops ... Putin sought and quickly got his parliament's approval to use its military to protect Russia's interests across Ukraine. But while sometimes-violent pro-Russian protests broke out Saturday in a number of Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine, Moscow's immediate focus appeared to be Crimea." Tim Sullivan and Vladimir Isachenkov at the Associated Press.
Crimean crisis FAQ. Joshua Keating at Slate.
Eastern Ukraine might be next. "Russia's next target is eastern Ukraine. Because pessimism conquers all, don't bet that Putin is going to stop once he wrests Crimea from Kiev's orbit. Eastern, Russian-speaking Ukraine—and all its heavy industry—is looking pretty good right now. And if you're thinking 'Why would Putin take eastern Ukraine?,' well, you haven't been reading very carefully." Julia Ioffe at the New Republic.
A 'victory' for Russia? Perhaps. But not a large one. "The most likely scenario at this point seems to be Crimea settling into a state of frozen conflict … a de facto autonomous territory under the heavy influence of Moscow but still technically considered by Kiev and its Western allies to be part of Ukraine … A lot of people will read it as evil genius Putin once again getting one over on the West. But gaining de facto control over yet another dysfunctional pseudostate, essentially ensuring long-term tension with Kiev in the process, certainly doesn’t seem as good an outcome as what Russia thought it was getting a month ago." Joshua Keating at Slate.
Six challenges for the new Ukrainian government. Steven Pifer at Brookings.
Ukraine is (legally) allowed to use force against Russia. "Russian forces have seized control of Crimea and reportedly are digging trenches in the land bridge that connects Crimea with the rest of Ukraine … It appears to be an unjustifiable armed attack on Ukraine, which means that under international law, Ukraine may use force in self-defense against Russia … Article 51 of the Charter recognizes that Ukraine has a right of self-defense. Ukraine must ask whether the use of force against Russia ... is necessary ... Jus ad bellum proportionality also would apply: Ukraine also must employ only that amount of force that is necessary to put forth an effective defense." Ashley Deeks at Lawfare.
Ukraine's military mobilizes. "Ukraine has ordered a full military mobilisation in response to Russia's build-up of its forces in Crimea. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Ukraine was 'on the brink of disaster' … Ukrainian national security officials announced several other measures on Sunday: - The armed forces would to be put on 'full combat readiness' - Reserves to be mobilised and trained - Foreign minister to seek help from US and UK leaders in guaranteeing its security - Emergency headquarters to be set up - Security to be boosted at key sites, including nuclear plants - Airspace to be closed to all non-civilian aircraft." BBC.
But Ukraine is ill-equipped to challenge the Russian military. "Leaders are facing a grim reality: Their armed forces are ill equipped to try to reconquer the region militarily. Crimea has always been a vital base for the ... Russian Navy, serving as the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet … But the Ukrainian military has only a token force in the autonomous region — a lightly armed brigade of about 3,500 people, equipped with artillery and light weapons but none of the country’s advanced battle tanks ... The forces also have only one air squadron of SU-27 fighters deployed at the air base near Belbek. A senior NATO official said that Ukraine’s small naval fleet … had been boxed in by Russian warships." Steven Erlanger and Andrew E. Kramer at the New York Times.
Everything you need to know about the Crimean Tatars and why they're important. Oxana Shevel at the Monkey Cage.
The OSCE gives Russia an out - if it wants one. "President Obama’s statement … notes that Russia’s armed intervention is inconsistent with Russia’s commitments under the Helsinki Final Act (the agreement that established the OSCE), calls for 'the dispatch of international observers under the auspices of the … (OSCE),' … There is no reason why the OSCE could not help broker compromises over new elections and push the Ukrainian government to guarantee the rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine. If Russia is looking for an exit strategy, this provides it. The question is, of course, whether Russia actually wants an exit strategy … If not, there isn’t much that ... the OSCE ... can do about it." Henry Farrell at the Monkey Cage.
This 'Russian exit' might be a win for Putin and the US. "This would be a typical page out of the successful revisionist state playbook. Revisionist states are most successful, not when they deploy naked force, but when they can commit a bit of institutional jujutsu, using an opponent’s own norms and institutions to justify expansion ... In the early 19th century, the United States was a master at using international law to justify ... blatant acts of war against Spain. It’s not that anyone believed these weren’t serious acts of aggression, but it gave status quo states an acceptable trade off: the revisionist state gets the territory; the status quo state gets to claim that the system worked." Stacie Goddard at the Duck of Minerva.
Ukraine: Stuck between Russia and US, in one chart. Erik Voeten at the Monkey Cage.
Putin may have taken Crimea, but Crimea is miles away from being an independent region. "Putin’s imperialist gambit may turn out to be his Waterloo. To see why, just open a map. That narrow strip of land tethering northern Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland, called the Perokop Isthmus, is the peninsula’s lifeline. What’s left out of most Western analyses of Putin’s brazen military intervention is the Crimea’s complete economic dependence on the mainland, which provides nearly all of its electricity and water and about 70 percent of its food." Mark Mycio at Slate.
Technically, they aren't Russian 'troops.' Technically. "Private security contractors working for the Russian military are the unmarked troops who have now seized control over two airports in the Ukrainian province of Crimea … Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Secretary of State John Kerry over the phone Friday that no Russian military or marines have been deployed outside of the base of the Black Sea Fleet, which is anchored nearby, officials in both governments said. Lavrov was technically telling the truth, but the troops are being directed by the Russian government." Josh Rogin at the Daily Beast.
The Budapest Memorandum and its relevance to the Ukrainian crisis. Ron Synovitz at Radio Free Europe.
5 lessons for Ukraine from the Orange Revolution. Damon Wilson at Real Clear World.
Ukraine naval admiral defects - now facing treason charges. "Faced with the Russian threat, Ukraine's new government moved to consolidate its authority ... dismissing the head of the country's navy after he declared allegiance to the pro-Russian government in Crimea … Adm. Denis Berezovsky — had been dismissed and faces a treason investigation after declaring his allegiance to the pro-Russian government in Crimea and offering no resistance to the Russian troops." Tim Sullivan and David McHugh at the Associated Press.
Ukraine recruits the oligarchs. "As tensions rose on the streets of the Russian-speaking eastern portion of Ukraine, the response of the new government in the capital on Sunday was ... to send rich people. The interim government, worried about Russian efforts to destabilize or seize regions in eastern Ukraine ... is recruiting the country’s wealthy businessmen, known as the oligarchs, to serve as governors of the eastern provinces. The strategy … is recognition that the oligarchs represent the country’s industrial and business elite, and exercise great influence over thousands of workers in the east, which is largely ethnically Russian." Andrew E. Kramer at the New York Times.
11 times Russian leaders condemned the use of force without UN authorization. Alison Vingiano at Buzzfeed.
LGBT Rights
The Overview
Holder: Attorneys General are not required to defend gay marriage bans. "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. ... injected the Obama administration into the ... debate over the future of state same-sex marriage bans, declaring in an interview that state attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws that they believe are discriminatory. Mr. Holder ... said that officials who have carefully studied bans on gay marriage could refuse to defend them. Six state attorneys general — all Democrats — have refused to defend bans on same-sex marriage, prompting criticism from Republicans who say they have a duty to stand behind their state laws, even if they do not agree with them." Matt Apuzzo at the New York Times.
Several states are backing off of 'religious freedom' bills. "While the nation's attention has been focused on an anti-gay bill advancing in Arizona, about a dozen other states have been quietly considering similar measures. These bills would also allow businesses, religious entities or even government officials to deny service to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. But with the bill in Arizona facing widespread criticism from Republican politicians to major U.S. corporations, some state lawmakers are getting cold feet." Amanda Terkel at the Huffington Post.
Big business is helping move LGBT rights forward - and social conservatives are outgunned. "The Arizona legislation was an especially acute uproar ... but the larger dynamic at play … pitting powerful business interests against ardent social conservatives — has played out over and over ... across the country. In blue states like New York, big companies have played a pivotal role in pushing same-sex marriage measures into law. In battlegrounds like Virginia and now Arizona, corporate America has slowed or halted hard-right social policy … There’s currently no more powerful constituency for gay rights than the Fortune 500 list." Alexander Burns and MJ Lee at Politico.
Arizona
Gov Brewer vetoes Arizona's latest anti-LGBT measure. "Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) vetoed a controversial bill Wednesday that would have allowed businesses in the state to deny service to gays and lesbians if they felt that serving them would violate their religious rights. Gay rights advocates had denounced the legislation, labeling it a form of legalized discrimination, and Arizona’s two GOP senators and leading Republican candidates for governor had urged Brewer to veto the bill. Several GOP state legislators who had voted for the measure last week have said since then that it was not the right thing to do." Aaron Blake at the Washington Post.
The measure was doomed from the start. "The truth is, though, that as far as sexual orientation is concerned, the attempt to carve out a broad religious exception to non-discrimination laws ... was probably doomed from the start … Religious freedom bills ... were written so broadly that they could easily have been construed as a license to discriminate. Persuading Americans that you should be allowed to discriminate against gays and lesbians is a harder sell than telling them same-sex couples shouldn’t be able to get married. A majority of Americans now favor same-sex marriage ... Non-discrimination is not just a majority position. It’s practically a foregone conclusion." Adam Serwer at MSNBC.
The Arizona battle sheds light on the GOP's problem with LGBT rights. "The bill produced almost unanimous opposition among one critical Republican constituency — business owners … The division was a window into a Republican Party that remains torn on gay rights issues ... Some of the party’s most committed voters continue to be intensely opposed to gay marriage, but their views are at odds with an increasing percentage of the American electorate … Many Republicans, including some who oppose gay marriage, said this bill crossed a line, enshrining discrimination in a way that they argued violated fundamental Republican principles." Adam Nagourney at the New York Times.
The death of the 'religious liberty' strategy? "Business leaders, statewide Republican elected officials, and GOP celebrities … seem to get that stomping away from a growing majority of the population with a middle finger hoisted overhead isn’t a smart thing to do … Jan Brewer … vetoed her state’s version of the right-to-discriminate bill. She joins a significant faction of powerful conservatives who seem to understand that religious liberty isn’t an all-purpose exemption from every law and norm conservatives don’t like, and can’t succeed politically as such." Brian Beutler at Salon.
Texas
The Texas gay marriage ban was struck down in district court. "Texas on Wednesday became the latest state to have a federal judge strike down its same-sex marriage ban, thanks to a sweeping decision holding that its current prohibition has no 'legitimate governmental purpose.' … A total of 17 states now allow ... legal unions, due to actions by voters, state courts or their legislatures. Federal courts have also helped move the needle on the issue, especially over the past year." Greg Botelho and Bill Mears at CNN.
Miscellaneous
Americans really hate Uganda's new anti-gay law. "A majority of Americans approve of suspending U.S. financial aid to Uganda to protest the African nation's stringent new anti-gay law ... According to the survey, 62 percent of Americans approve of cutting financial aid to Uganda ... A whopping 76 percent said they disapproved of the Uganda law itself ... Americans were also unequivocal when asked if they favored other countries cutting aid to Uganda in protest, with 56 percent approving … Americans of every political persuasion favored cutting aid to Uganda ... regardless of whether they supported legal recognition of gay couples’ marriages in the U.S." Stephen Calabria at the Huffington Post.
Politics
Democrats
The 14/16 wars have begun. "Tensions are simmering over whether Priorities USA Action and other Democratic groups that can accept unlimited contributions are too focused on the 2016 presidential race and a potential Hillary Rodham Clinton candidacy, even as Democrats face a costly, uphill fight this year to retain a thin Senate majority and gain seats in the House … Worries remain among leading Democratic figures that the early 2016 buildup is distracting from the urgent need to combat well-funded groups on the right this year." Matea Gold at the Washington Post.
The Economy
Q4 growth falls below expectations. "The revised estimate of 2.4 percent annual growth is the weakest quarterly showing since the first quarter of 2013. A key reason for the downgrade was that consumer spending is now estimated to have expanded at a 2.6 percent annual rate, below the initial estimate of 3.3 percent … Economists said the more sluggish pace of consumer spending resulted from bad weather at the end of the year … But they pointed to one key point of encouragement in the report: The government's estimate of business investment was revised up to an annual rate of 7.3 percent — the best quarterly showing in a year and sharply higher than the initial 3.8 percent annual rate." Martin Crutsinger at the Associated Press.
Fed Chair Yellen indicates that the taper will continue. "Yellen ... stuck to the view that the economy was recovering and indicated that it would take a significant turn in data before she pushed for a pause in the unwinding of bond purchases. The Fed's bond purchases have been aimed at stimulating growth by lowering long-term interest rates. In late December, under then-Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, policymakers announced the start of a gradual tapering of the program, believing the economy was firmly on a path of improving growth." Don Lee at the LA Times.
A minimum wage increase is good economic policy. "House Speaker John Boehner says raising the minimum wage is 'bad policy' because it will cause job losses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says a minimum wage increase would be a job killer … Most of this is bunk. When in 1996 I recommended the minimum wage be raised, Republicans and the Chamber screamed it would 'kill jobs.' In fact, in the four years after it was raised, the U.S. economy created more jobs than were ever created in any four-year period." Robert Reich at the Huffington Post.
Elections
The 2016 race for Mitt Romney's donors is on - the 5 GOP frontrunners. Wesley Lowery at the Fix.
2016: Year of the Governor-Candidates? Jaime Fuller at the Fix.
The path to hold the Senate looks rough for Dems. "Republicans can take back the chamber … with a net gain of six seats, and the seven seats most likely to flip are held by Democrats in states President Obama lost in 2012. The most important change since ... three months ago is the glut of outside spending, particularly against Democratic incumbents … Republicans are well positioned to win a Senate majority in 2014. A favorable map, combined with a positive national environment driven by disapproval of the health care law, have put Democrats on the defensive." Steven Shepard and Julie Sobel at the National Journal.
After the shutdown debacle, the Tea Party is losing ground. "After the shutdown, Republican leaders immediately seemed less intimidated by the purity caucus … The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a number of Republican donors resolved to aid electable Republicans in primaries. Tea party challenges have fizzled in Kentucky and Texas. They are fading in Kansas, Tennessee and South Carolina. And even in Mississippi — where Sen. Thad Cochran is a vulnerable incumbent — the tea party insurgent struggles to explain his recent skeptical reaction when asked about Katrina relief funding." Michael Gerson at the Washington Post.
Fiscal Fights
The deficit is down. Really. Down. Not up. Down. "Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year. In nominal terms, that is the smallest deficit since 2008, and signals the end of a five-year stretch beginning with the onset of the recession when the country’s fiscal gap came in at more than $1 trillion each year. As a share of the nation’s economy, the budget deficit fell to about 4.1 percent, from a high of more than 10 percent during the depths of the Great Recession." Annie Lowrey at the New York Times.
But the GOP doesn't want to talk about that. "The steep decline of the deficit is not something Republicans really want to talk about … If the public really understood how much the deficit has fallen, it would undermine the party’s excuse for opposing every single spending program, exposing the 'cost to future generations' as a hyped-up hoax. In fact, it would lead to exactly the conclusion that Ms. Murray reached in her memo to Senate Democrats: that the country can now afford to spend money to boost employment, stay competitive with the rest of the globe in education and research, and finally deal with the long-deferred repairs to public works." David Firestone at Taking Note.
Everything you need to know about Obama's latest budget proposal. David Wessel at Brookings.
Camp's tax reform bill: Okay start, but a bad final product. "Representative Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, released an ambitious tax reform proposal ... The bill has some worthy aspirations … But in its current incarnation, the plan is fundamentally flawed. First, it claims to be revenue neutral, but achieves that goal only with timing gimmicks ... Second, revenue neutrality is itself a recipe for an unsustainable budget path. Our demographics alone, not to mention growing challenges like climate change, imply future demands on government programs that clearly show neutrality to be a misguided guidepost for tax reform." Jared Bernstein at Economix.
Foreign Policy
Obama doesn't have a military response to the Russians - but diplomacy could work. "Much as people carp about the insufficiency of President Obama's response, the entirety of this crisis is governed by the fact that the US has no viable military options and Russia does … It is difficult to overstate the ease with which Russia can take possession of the Crimean Peninsula ... It's the home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet. And the peninsula is riddled with Russian military installations … The real levers Obama or more specifically the US and Europe have are the ability to make the price of a Russian land grab some version of international pariah status, through a mix of economic and diplomatic exclusion." Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.
5 ways Obama could respond without initiating a conflict. Hayes Brown at Think Progress.
GOP
Hypocrisy alert! "There’s hypocritical rhetoric. There’s breathtaking hypocritical rhetoric. Then there’s rhetoric so hypocritical that it ruptures the space-time continuum. Reasonable people can debate the merits of competing proposals or policy strategies, but for Speaker Boehner to suggest President Obama is uninterested in governing, lacks ambition, and intends to do nothing for the rest of the 2014 is so head-spinning that it’s genuinely alarming Boehner was able to say the words out loud without laughing hysterically." Steve Benen at Maddowblog.
The GOP's social service problem. "It's a lose-lose predicament that reflects the GOP's competing interests on Medicare and Social Security. Their wealthy donors are eager to scale back these programs, but millions of their constituents benefit from them and voters broadly oppose any cuts. At the same time, Republicans often can't resist using the specter of cuts as a political weapon." Sahil Kapur at Talking Points Memo.
Guns
The ongoing fight for improved background checks, minus weapons bans. "It’s also a signal of how the gun control movement has regrouped ... By forgetting about banning weapons … and throwing all its weight behind universal background checks … After the massacre at Sandy Hook ... Brady and many peer groups included restrictions on military-style weapons and large-ammunition clips among their priorities … Many strategists think the advocates for gun violence legislation made a serious error last year, by trying to push both background checks and restrictions on weapons and ammunition." Nora Caplan-Bricker at the New Republic.
Health
The anti-ACA House of Representatives is back in business. "House Republicans ... will return to an old standby next week: repealing Obamacare. Or, in this case, voting (again) to delay the individual mandate for a year … This is pure feedback-loop stuff. No one outside of the conservative information system is upset about the individual mandate. And I suspect that even within that information loop, people are only worked up about the principle of being able to choose not to have insurance, not an actual desire to have no insurance." Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg.
Why the GOP keeps asserting that it has an ACA replacement when it clearly doesn't. "There’s no plan out there that is both ideologically acceptable to conservatives and politically defensible. Carping from the sidelines is a great strategy for Republicans ... It lets them highlight the downside of every trade-off without owning any downside of their own. They can vaguely promise to solve any problem with the status quo ante without exposing themselves to the risk any real reform entails ... Now, for this method to work, you need to pretend to have a plan of your own somewhere." Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine.
Good news on childhood obesity is tamped down by some bad news on childhood obesity. "The nation is celebrating a new study reporting that the obesity rate for children ages 2 to 5 has plummeted over the last decade. But one of the sadder parts of the study released Wednesday was that the U.S. obesity rate is a reflection of the nation's racial divide: Blacks and Hispanics suffer much higher levels of obesity compared with whites … Obesity rates among babies are fairly similar across racial lines. But the disparities rapidly emerge. A black child age 2 to 5 is more than three times as likely to be obese as a white child that age. Hispanic children in that age group are nearly five times as likely to be obese." Zachary Goldfarb at Wonkblog.
This argument is so stupid… "Let’s say the next time I go to a restaurant ... for lunch, instead of getting a bill for $22.64, we’ll get a bill for $22.84. And with those two extra dimes, we’re told everyone who works at that restaurant will be able to receive affordable medical care. Putting aside the question of whether a restaurant actually faces any meaningful financial burdens associated with the Affordable Care Act, am I really supposed to find this scandalous?" Steve Benen at Maddowblog.
SCOTUSwatch
The right to counsel is weaker than ever. "The Court's majority in Kaley was openly hostile to the idea of a broadened right to counsel. Six justices refused to extend it to require a pretrial hearing sought by defendants who wanted their money unfrozen so they could pay their lawyers. But it would be a mistake for posterity to remember the dissent in Kaley as some noble defense of the right to counsel … The Kaley decision—both parts of it—confirm that this form of unequal justice is precisely what the Roberts Court is comfortable with—one right to counsel for those defendants who can afford a lawyer and a much less robust right, a hollow right in many ways, for those defendants who cannot." Andrew Cohen at the Atlantic.
The States
Governors and state governments are just as partisan as the rest of us. "Governors no longer provide an alternative to Washington's unstinting partisan warfare; either as conscripts or volunteers, they are now almost all combatants in it … Republicans control the state legislatures and governorships in 23 states, and Democrats in 15. Those states under unified party control are now hurtling in opposite directions on issues as diverse as gun control, taxes, immigration, and social questions: While 17 states, all Democratic-leaning, permit gay marriage, 14 uniformly red states have voted to restrict access to abortion to 22 weeks into pregnancy or earlier." Ronald Brownstein at the National Journal.
Veterans
International
Global
2013 was a pretty bad year for human rights. "With a Syrian chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,000 civilians, violent crackdowns against protesters in Turkey and Ukraine and a string of anti-gay laws from Russia to Uganda, human rights abuses last year ranked among the worst in years, the State Department concluded Thursday in its annual review of more than 200 countries and territories." Daniel Rothman at the LA Times.
You need a liberal government to guarantee religious freedom, not a secular one. "When it comes to securing the rights of citizens of all faiths to worship peacefully, the distinction between secular and non-secular government is less important than the distinction between liberal and repressive responses to religious expression. Central Asian leaders’ insistence on secular government and vocal opposition to 'extremism' is not an indication of a liberal commitment to religious moderation; rather, it is part of a broader campaign of repression against any forms of assembly or expression outside of state control." Kara Downey at the Monkey Cage.
Seven facts about global education financing. Liesbet Steer at Brookings.
Africa
After an anti-gay law passes, the World Bank cuts off funding to Uganda. "The World Bank on Thursday announced that it would be indefinitely delaying $90 million worth of loans to Uganda, the largest repercussion yet to President Yoseri Museveni signing a bill earlier this week that threatens life in jail for Ugandan gays. Earlier this week, Museveni ignored criticism from the United States and signed the bill, which aside from making homosexual behavior punishable by up to life in prison, bans all advocacy on LGBT issues. The law also provides incentives for citizens to turn in associates who are gay and declares that performing a same-sex marriage carries a sentence of seven years in prison." Hayes Brown at Think Progress.
Asia
Another attack on a polio team in Pakistan. "A bomb attack on a polio vaccination team in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 11 people, officials say. A roadside bomb went off as the police-guarded convoy drove through a village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The attack is the latest in a series targeting polio teams in the country. No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban oppose the polio schemes, which they see as a cover for international espionage … Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic, along with Nigeria and Afghanistan." BBC.
Middle East
Retiring U.S. Ambassador Ford: 7 takeaways on the Syrian civil war. Ariel Zirulnick at the Christian Science Monitor.
South America
U.S.-Venezuela relations are as lousy as ever. "The escalating political crisis in Venezuela has set off alarms in Washington. But there's little the U.S. has been able to do, aside from criticize the jailing of opposition figures or the rising death toll as protesters continue to take to the streets, blaming the government for high inflation and crime. The Obama administration had tried to improve relations with Venezuela, but the new president, Nicolas Maduro ... tends to blame the U.S. for the country's problems … Just recently he expelled three U.S. diplomats, accusing them of plotting against his government." Michele Keleman at NPR.
Science
Don't fear the (GMO) reaper. "Genetically modified crops are now grown on about one-tenth of the world’s cropland, and none of the disastrous consequences ... have come to pass … In some environmental circles, blanket opposition to GMOs is like taking a loyalty oath – dissidents are regarded as traitors in league with the evil biotech industry. It is time to move beyond such a narrowly ideological stance. Some GMOs may have a useful role to play in public health, and others in fighting the challenge of growing food in an era of climate change. We should consider the merits of each genetically modified plant on a case-by-case basis." Peter Singer at Project Syndicate.
A genetic theory of LGBT populations. "The existence of a significant number of gays in human populations around the world could be a consequence of the fact that a high degree of diversity in sexual preference is necessary to ensure our survival. In other words, what is hardwired into our genes isn’t homosexuality itself, but the human tendency to exhibit a wide range of sexual preferences. Scientists refer to this as 'hypervariability' and it may well give rise, in some irreducible number of cases, to men who fall on the masculine-preference end of the spectrum and become gay, and women who fall on the feminine-preference end and become lesbians." Helen Epstein at the New York Review of Books.
Top 5 facts about imaginary numbers. Ethan Siegel at Medium.
NASA has discovered over 700 new planets. "NASA’s Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of Earth. This discovery marks a significant increase in the number of known small-sized planets more akin to Earth than previously identified exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system." William W. at Space Industry News.
Miscellaneous
Mathematically speaking, you should (almost) always order a larger pizza. "The math of why bigger pizzas are such a good deal is simple: A pizza is a circle, and the area of a circle increases with the square of the radius. So, for example, a 16-inch pizza is actually four times as big as an 8-inch pizza. And when you look at thousands of pizza prices from around the U.S., you see that you almost always get a much, much better deal when you buy a bigger pizza." Quoctrung Bui at NPR.
17 signs that you'd qualify as a witch in 1692. Leah Beckmann at Mental Floss.
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